Over 6.5 million Americans experience chronic wounds -; wounds that do not heal after a few months. Almost all such wounds contain bacteria, which, if not detected and removed, can lead to severe infection and resulting complications, including amputation if a limb is involved.
This is especially true for patients with diabetic foot ulcers (open sores), which affects one-third of people with diabetes . Approximately 20% of those who develop a diabetic foot ulcer will require a lower-extremity amputation, according to the American Diabetes Association. When physicians debride, or clean out, a wound, they remove as much bacteria as possible.
However, they face one key limitation -; not all bacteria can be seen by the human eye, and some may be missed during the debridement. New Keck Medicine of USC research published in Advances in Wound Care suggests there may be a more effective method to detect bacteria during wound debridement. Autofluorescence (AF) imaging, where a handheld device "lights up" bacteria previously invisible to the human eye, uses violet light to illuminate molecules in the cell walls of any bacteria.
Different types of bacteria turn different colors, allowing physicians to immediately determine how much and which types of bacteria are in the wound. We're hopeful this new technology can help surgeons improve their accuracy when pinpointing and consequently removing bacteria from wounds and therefore improve patient outcomes, particularly for those with diabet.